Prosecutor outlines Winchester double-murder, rape case

A Camp Pendleton Marine who had fought in the Middle East and a San Diego woman who worked in a program for at-risk mothers bought a spacious home in Winchester in June 2008 and married that August, a prosecutor told jurors Monday morning in Riverside.

That Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, who was born in Poland, was very light-skinned, while his wife, Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, 26, was a black American, made no difference to them or their parents.

A little more than two months after their wedding, Deputy District Daniel DeLimon said, "they were murdered -- executed inside the home they had just purchased. It was not fast and it was not pretty."

DeLimon's comments came during his opening statement in the trials of Tyrone Miller, 25, and Emrys Justin John, 23, in the courtroom of Judge Christian Theirbach at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

They are among four former Marines, who were also based at Camp Pendleton, charged with the beating and shooting deaths of the sergeant and his wife. The defendants also are charged with committing rape with a foreign object for their alleged sexual assault on her.

Defendant Kevin Cox, 25, is being tried by a separate jury in the same courtroom, with attorneys delivering openings statements Monday afternoon.

The trial of the remaining defendant Kesaun Kedron Sykes, 25, has been delayed until later this year.

Each, if found guilty, would undergo a subsequent trial to determine if their crimes warrant the death penalty.

The cases might not be happening at all, Delimon told jurors, if the suspects had succeeded in their effort to burn down the Pietrzaks' home, including the bodies inside, after the assaults in the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 2008.

Evidence inside the home indicated the suspects tried unsuccessfully to set the house on fire, and in the process left clues such as shoe prints that buttress the case against the defendants, the prosecutor said.

Failing to get a blaze going, the suspects, all of whom are black, fled in such a hurry that they left the front door open, Delimon said.

When the Pietrzaks failed to show up later that day for their respective jobs and did not answer phone calls, concerned colleagues asked sheriff's deputies to check on them at the home.

Deputies arriving noticed the open door and quickly located the bodies. They found the husband "hog-tied and bound" with at least two bullet wounds to his head, his clothing spattered with blood.

A photo displayed by the prosecutor showed that the upper torso of the wife's nude body lay partially sprawled over a couch while her lower torso covered her husband's head. Another photo detailed two bullet wounds, one to the side of her head and the other to the back of her neck.

Investigators found a sex toy they believe the defendants used in the rape. Spray-painted in silver on the walls, a mirror and even on the woman's stomach was the phrase, "N----- lover."

The prosecutor said the home appeared to have been ransacked and family members of the couple provided investigators a list of items, including jewelry, that appeared to be missing.

The first break in the case came when a bank reported that someone had used Jenkins-Pietrzak's ATM card to extract money from a machine near the Fallbrook gate to Camp Pendleton. Although the card user managed to conceal his face with a bandana, investigators could see what it looked like and also a brand of gloves the individual was wearing, clues that would be helpful later during searches of the suspects' property.

Meanwhile, detectives were receiving bits of information from various Marines who knew the sergeant and some of the men who eventually became suspects, information that led them to interview Miller. A search of a home on Camp Pendleton uncovered the ATM card and some of the jewelry. When Miller was confronted with such evidence, DeLimon said, he admitted he had participated in the attacks but had not been the one to fire the fatal shots.

That evidence as well as statements by other witnesses and other emerging evidence led investigators to the other suspects.

Defense attorney John Hemmer, who represents John, urged the jurors to scrutinize what he described as inconsistent statements made by many of the witnesses they would be hearing to determine their credibility.

He said that in contrast to some of the witnesses, John, who is alleged to have done the shooting, does not have a criminal background.

"He comes to you clean as the driven snow," Hemmer said.

Miller's defense attorney reserved his right to make an opening statement after the prosecutor concludes his case.